New
Perspectives for Learning - Briefing Paper 50
Students as "Journeymen" between communities of Higher Education and Work
This
is the Final Briefing Paper of the project that started in September 2001
Context of the Research
Most governments across Europe have
policies in place to increase the number of students entering higher
education. This is based on the assumption that higher education can supply
the skills and qualifications in terms of “human capital” required for a
more complex and technological working life. In addition, European policy is
also focused upon increasing workforce mobility between European countries.
However, underlying these broad
policies are factors at play that might determine how successful such
policies might be for preparing students for working life within different
institutions, educational systems and cultures. One determining issue is
what people make of education as well as how education moulds people. This
would be through the mutual interplay between institutions of higher
education, and the students and teachers that populate them. Another issue
is that the same educational initiatives might bring different
results in different cultures. Other factors will determine the
possibilities and hindrances for increased work force mobility between
European countries.
This project aimed to enhance the
understanding of learning strategies, values and “worldviews” that students
and novices apply within and across different learning environments - both
in education and in working life. It has aimed to gain an understanding of
students’ experiences of transitions from higher education to professional
life in different European countries. In particular, it has focused on the
cultural diversity of academic and work institutions in Europe. There has
been a multilevel and critical analysis of the relationship between the
formulated policies for higher education and the way higher education is
experienced by students and professional novices.
In this project, students in higher
education are viewed as “journeymen” between the cultures of higher
education and working life. By studying students as individuals and as
members of a culture, the project has aimed to gain a better understanding
of the relationships between cultural, educational and working life
contexts.
Comparative studies were conducted
in Sweden, Norway, Poland and Germany using freshmen and seniors studying
psychology, political science and other subjects. The senior students were
also interviewed after their first year of working life experience.
Key Conclusions
At the Institutional and programme
level: -
1. It
was found that the institutions and programmes studied have different ideas
of education. Although they deal with the same subject, they place different
emphases, according to their learning organisation, and follow different
pedagogies and conceptions of learning.
2. Such
differences appear to be greater between professional programmes than
between traditional liberal arts studies.
3. This
may impact on learners` attitudes towards knowledge, competence and their
work life expectations.
4. Professional
programmes in Sweden and Norway have a more vocational orientation, whereas
the counterparts in Poland and Germany are more modelled on the classical
ideals of higher education.
5. Students
in liberal arts studies develop generic skills e.g. communicative skills
that they highly appreciated after they entered the labour market.
6. Student
centred programmes e.g. problem based learning - seem to prepare students
better for entry into work life than traditional programmes.
7. The
process of learning and identity construction appears to be located in
between academic institutions, work life experiences, individual life
strategies and socio–political contexts. This means that Journeymen
consider institutions of higher education as a part of the setting
where professional learning takes place.
8. Programmes
in higher education seem to have both a ritual and a rational
relationship to demands faced by professional novices in work life. If the
relationship is rational it may be substantive as well as generic. It is not
evident that professional programmes have a more rational relationship to
work life demands than liberal arts studies.
9. The
transformation of higher education towards a greater mobility of workforce
in Europe, in the form of higher education for the masses, poses fundamental
challenges to educational programmes and policies. Study programmes have to
be described in terms of their aims and intended impact on the students in
addition to homogenising merely the “outer” framework such as grades or
quantitative aspects of programmes.
10.
There is empirical evidence that there are
“institutional pacts” (tacit and overt) between institutions of higher
education and professional corporations or other stakeholders in the social
environment of the university. Political reforms in higher education have to
consider the existence of such pacts. Otherwise there is a risk that reforms
are avoided by different strategies or are implemented as sheer rhetoric.
At the macro European higher
education level: -
11.
A more integrated policy in Europe in the
area of Higher Education in Europe requires that tendencies to maintain
academic autonomy and the ever more increasing pressure on institutions of
HE to comply with market demands, are balanced against each other.
12.
There seems to be a politically constructed
difference between knowledge and competence, the former significant in the
relations between academic institutions and business (“academic capitalism”
means that knowledge becomes a commodity and therefore is no longer freely
transmitted in education), the latter constructing the field of learning for
employment. It means that the discourse of competence that dominates the
thinking of individual outcomes of higher education may deter the students
from seeking knowledge, and leave the field of knowledge unchallenged and
free to be capitalised. It is in the interest of European tradition to avoid
such a development.
Key Recommendations
At the Institutional and programme
level: -
1. Study
programmes should be described in terms of their aims and intended impact on
the students in addition to homogenising merely the “outer” framework such
as grades or quantitative aspects of programmes.
2. Study
programmes should also emphasise work life experiences in relevant fields
and integrate these with the theoretical parts of the studies. This means
that there should be sufficient opportunities for theorising practice and
practising theory.
3. Study
programmes should apply working forms that allow students to formulate aims
for their learning and critically scrutinise and evaluate the outcome.
4. Professional
study programmes in particular should be designed so as to give students a
clear idea of how different courses contribute to the development of their
professional identity.
At the macro European higher
education level: -
1. Harmonising
systems of higher education in Europe does not come into being only by
implementing common outer frameworks or grading systems. There has to be a
sense for diversity between disciplines and programmes. In the long run
students are better off by having free access to a variety of study
programmes.
- Recommendations given to institutions of higher
education in Europe should build on the general principles designing
sustainable conditions for learning as indicated in the key conclusions.
- A European dimension in higher education should be
about equal power conditions as regards the influence on study
programmes between institutions of higher education and professional
corporations. An open dialogue between the actors is necessary in order
to accomplish this.
Further Information
The full title of the project is
“Students as "Journeymen" between communities of Higher Education and Work”.
Final Report - September 2004.
The Project website is
at: -
http://www.hewl.net
Final Report
Partner
details
Key
Publications
Higher
Education and Working Life: A state of the art report. Project Students as
Journeymen between communities of Higher education and work. European
Commission project HPSE CT 2001-00068. November 2002
Freshmen
Students on Education and Work. National analyses. Project Students as
Journeymen between communities of Higher education and work. European
Commission project HPSE 2001-00068 December 2002
National
comparison of Freshmen and Senior Students. Project Students as Journeymen
between communities of Higher education and work. European Commission
project HPSE CT 2001-00068. April 2003.
An
international Comparison of Freshmen and Senior Students. Project Students
as Journeymen between Communities of Higher Education and Work. European
Commission Project HPSE CT-2001-00068. June 2003.
Students
as Journeymen between Communities of Higher Education and Work Life. Final
report. European Commission: HPSE CT – 2001 – 00068. October 2004.
Karseth B
& Solbrekke T D (2004): Communities of practice. Spaces of learning in
higher education. Paper at the PROLEARN conference, Institute of
Educational Research, University of Oslo, November 25-27.
Solbrekke
T D & Karseth B (2004): Education for professional responsibility - an
issue for higher education? Paper at the PROLEARN conference, Institute of
Educational Research, University of Oslo, November 25-27.
Handal G
& Lycke K H (2004): From higher education to professional practice:
Learning among students and professionals. Paper at the PROLEARN
conference, Institute of Educational Research, University of Oslo, November
25-27.
Research Institutions
Gerhard-Marcator-Universität
Duisburg, Fachbereich 2 Erziehungswissenschaft – Psychologie, Germany
University of Oslo, Institute for
Educational Research, Norway
University of Gdansk, Institute of
Education, Poland
Linköping University, Department of
Behavioral Sciences, Sweden
Contact Person
Professor Lars Owe Dahlgren
Department of Behavioural Sciences
Linköping University
S 581 83 Linköping
Sweden
Tel: +46 13 282120
Fax: +46 13 282145
Email:
larda@ibv.liu.se
PDF Version
For
more information about other Briefing Papers on “New Perspectives for
Learning” go to http://www.pjb.co.uk/npl/index.htm
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Last updated
28 June 2007